Book Review: Heart 2046 by Zoé Henriques

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Recently, I finished the Book Heart 2046 by author Zoé Henriques. I personally would rate it a 3-3.5/5 stars. An added bonus is that it is available for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited Subscriber! Here is my review:

What if everyone lived in an isolated, high-tech concrete box? What if, in the midst of that, you were dealing with gaps in your memory, a possible alter ego you didn't know about, the lure of a dangerous outside world, and family issues? This is the premise that Henriques gives us in Heart 2046.

Simon, our main character, is living isolated in a concrete box inside 'The System' with only the company of his AI butler Tomodashi (think Disney Channel's Movie Smart House) and virtual visits with his wife, Lizzy, and daughter Stella. Simon is old enough that he did not always live in 'The System,' though. He lived through 'The Big Change,' although he remembers increasingly fewer details about his life before this change. He receives help from a mysterious Dr. W from time to time and passes the time typing on his typewriter. Very early on in the story, Simon is surprised when he finds himself unconsciously typing back to himself as another character, Torn.

Throughout the novel, we go on Simon's journey with him to figure out what memories he has lost and why, who and what Torn is, and how to navigate the world inside and outside of the system. This is made more intriguing by the fact that Simon increasingly cannot decipher the difference between dreams and reality. This makes for a great unreliable main character, which I personally love.

As a whole, I really liked the concept and plot. It made me want to keep reading to find out the answers that Simon was also looking for. I felt the pacing was pretty good and read this in the course of a few days. However, parts of the execution kept me from rating this higher (I rounded up to 4 from 3.5). First, I felt like this book was a little too ambitious with what it was trying to accomplish. There are some plot points Henriques could have omitted, and we still could have gotten the information we needed for the story.

Secondly, I felt like the writing could have been cleaned up a little more. There were excessive ellipses, somewhat unrealistic dialogue, and times when sentences were redundant. There were also a few things that were not totally explained. I personally was okay with this ambiguity as a reader, but I know some readers like a heads-up about that. Having said that, none of this made me want to stop reading at any point, but I do feel like it would have improved the novel.

I'd recommend this book to readers of speculative fiction, sci-fi, and dystopian novels. It was a story that will stay with me for a while.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to the author and Book Sirens!